Andrew Graham Henderson

Architect; JHKM employee

Architect Andrew Graham (known as Graham) Henderson
(1882–1963), was born in Auckland, New Zealand, but the
family returned to Scotland in 1890–1. 1 He was educated at Irvine Royal
Academy, and Allan Glen's School, Glasgow. In 1898, he was
articled to the Glasgow practice of Macwhannel & Rogerson,
where he remained until 1903. At the same time, he studied
building construction at Glasgow Technical College, and, from
1899 to 1901, architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. 2 Following a short spell with William Baillie,
Henderson joined Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh around April 1904. 3

Henderson was a talented draughtsman. As Mackintosh's assistant, he
produced a perspective drawing for Auchinibert, which was
exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and published in Academy
Architecture under the firm's name in 1908. 4 Henderson
travelled extensively, to France, Belgium, and in 1907, as 'a
student recommended by the R.I.B.A.', he 'pursued various
studies in Italy'. 5 He was an assistant, and
later head, draughtsman at Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh
between 1903 and 1916. Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh's
handsome 1911 drawing for a new bandstand at the Bowes Museum in Barnard
Castle, County Durham may be his work. 6 He was also assistant to Professor Eugene
Bourdon at the Glasgow School of Art, and, from 1910–14, acted as a
visiting examiner of building construction students at Paisley
Technical College. 7

In 1913, Henderson's competition design for the Demonstration
School at Jordanhill won the commission for Honeyman, Keppie
& Mackintosh, and in 1914, after Mackintosh's departure,
he won the competition to redevelop Glasgow Cross. 8 Independently, he submitted a design for the
Manchester Library and Art
Gallery competition of 1911, with John R. Hacking,
a former colleague at Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh.
Although unsuccessful, Henderson's drawings were published in
the Builder alongside the nine other shortlisted
designs. 9 In 1913, he was placed second in the
competition for Langside Library, Glasgow. 10

During the First World War, John Keppie continued to pay Henderson
while he served with the 9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Bn, The
Highland Light Infantry. As the result of injury, he lost the
use of his right arm, but trained himself to write and draw
with his left hand. 11
Henderson's skills were used in the post-war demilitarisation
process. He worked for the Directorate of Lands from January
1919 until at least June 1919; he was also an Inspector of
Works, acting as a 'war department valuer', using his
knowledge of buildings to enable their return to peacetime
use. 12

Henderson later wrote that his 'partnership with Mr Keppie
nominally commenced Jan. 1916', when he was in the forces and
the name of John Keppie & Henderson appears from that date
in some directories. 13 He
returned to the office, as a full partner, probably around the
time of his marriage to Agnes G. Sclanders in June 1919. 14

The inter-war years were not busy professionally, but one of the
best-known interventions by the practice was at Glasgow Cross,
which was radically redesigned (1914; 1923–31) to allow
better traffic flow. Henderson's planned concave facades were
only partially executed, but the grander 'Mercat Building'
(1928–31) at the Gallowgate junction on the east was
decorated with an important sculptural programme by Alexander
Proudfoot, Archibald Dawson and Benno Schotz. 15 Other notable projects
under Henderson's control were the late 1920s Bank of Scotland
in Sauchiehall Street, and Cloberhill School, both in Glasgow.
The school won a Royal Institute of British Architects Bronze
Medal for Scotland in 1938, for 'the best building erected by
an architect in Scotland in the last five years'. Henderson
hoped that architects would be encouraged 'that an award
could be gained for a building ... not of national
importance.' 16

In 1931, Henderson was elected a Fellow of the RIBA; Keppie was one
of his proposers. 17 After Keppie's retirement on 30 June 1937,
the partnership was dissolved, and Henderson and fellow
partner Alexander Smellie, continued at 181 West Regent
Street, under the practice name of 'John Keppie
& Henderson'. Henderson served as President of the Glasgow
Institute of Architects from 1932 until 1934. 18

During the Second World War, Henderson became a lieutenant colonel
(quartering commandant), responsible for requisitioning
buildings for military use in west and central Scotland. These
included Jordanhill College where he had designed the
demonstration school. The contacts he acquired during this
wartime role doubtless stood him in good stead in obtaining
public sector work thereafter. Subsequent commissions included
industrial projects at Vale of Leven, Cumbernauld and
Newhouse. 19 Henderson understood that the new
National Health Service would lead to building work and
brought in Joseph L. Gleave in 1949, who designed the first
NHS acute hospital in the UK at Vale of Leven. This
relationship ended in 1958, but Henderson ensured a prosperous
future for the practice through the recruitment of the next
generation of Tom Scott, Geoffrey Wimpenny and Dick
De'Ath. 20

By the end of the Second World War Henderson was President of the
Glasgow Art Club. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish
Academy in 1943. In 1947 he became a member of the influential
Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland, which included
architects Ian G. Lindsay and Reginald Fairlie. 21
Official appointments continued, with the Presidency of the
Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (1945–7),
and seats on the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland (1948;
re-appointed 1955) and the Scottish panel of the British
Council. 22

Henderson attended the opening in 1949 of the Glasgow School of
Art's Mackintosh Room along with Thomas Howarth, an early champion
of Mackintosh. 23 After having been its vice-president in
1949, Henderson became the first practising architect from
Scotland to be President of the RIBA, appointed in July 1950.
In his ensuing public appearances, he welcomed the design
showcase offered by the Festival of Britain (1951), and
defended the primacy of architects over town-planners. 24 Henderson served the standard two-year
presidential term, which was sometimes mistakenly reported in
the press as 're-election' after his first year. Among his
duties, he hosted a lunch for Royal Gold Medallist (1941)
Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950, and toured Canada and the United
States in 1952. 25

The University of Glasgow celebrated its 500th Anniversary in 1951,
and Henderson designed the commemorative gates in University
Avenue which were funded by alumni donations. Their five
sections represented the preceding five centuries, and the
central uprights ('meeting stiles') were shaped like the
institution's ceremonial mace, 'the symbol of the university's
authority'. A corresponding plaque by Henderson was placed on
the University's former site in the High Street in 1955. 26
In 1954, he was Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Glasgow
School of Architecture in its 50th anniversary year. He became
a Royal Scottish Academician in1953, after having being an
associate for a decade. 27

In 1958, the practice became Keppie, Henderson & Partners, but
although he was still working, Henderson remained without the
knighthood usually bestowed upon a past-president of the RIBA.
This was rumoured to be due to differences over his extensions
to Birkhall, at Balmoral, for the Queen Mother in 1955. 28 Henderson died at home in Glasgow
on 21 November 1963. 29

'Mackintosh Architecture' led by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; with additional support from The Monument Trust, The Pilgrim Trust, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; and collaborative input from Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.